I think the better question would be "Which optional rules do you use and why?" Here is my answer to that question and you can consider any answer as an opinion:

Manual Defensive Fire - OFF - With this rule ON you have a Manual Defensive Fire phase where you fire your units. There is no AI Defensive Fire during the enemy player's movement. Its the old "Panzer Bush" tactics where you move from cover to cover with no enemy fire on your units. Also I dont like to play using the individual phases as otherwise my opponent and I would have to trade 6 emails (3 each) per turn. Takes too long to play most of the scenarios that way AND the old Defensive Phase from the Battleground games was supplanted to only allow defensive fire instead of formation changes and counter charging. Some players play with this option so that they can choose their own targets during the phase rather than leave it to the AI to fire.

Victory Points for Leader Casualties - ON - Napoleon and the other leaders should be worth victory points if they become a casualty.

Rout Limiting - ON - its total chaos if this is turned OFF - we even tried it in playtesting and it actually harmed the smaller Allied armies more than the French Rev. Armies. Go figure.

Isolation Rules - ON - If I had my way units would roll for surrender if Isolated AND No Ammo starting on the 2nd turn. See my comments later on No Melee Eliminations to fully understand why I say this.

Optional Fire Results - ON - This is more of my opinion than a matter of reasoning. There are pros and cons to this one which the manual lays out well. I like it because with it ON because you get more average results resulting in less luck and more skill.

Melee Terrain Modifiers - ON - terrain should factor into melee result determination. With this off it doesn't.

Column Pass Through Fire - ON - an optional rule that I lobbied for - with this one not only are multiple units in Line Formation in the same hex affected by cannon fire but also units in Column. I believe it also affects multiple squares too. Target Density Modifier needs to be ON to get the full benefit of this rule. Together - both rules tend to stop players from massing large numbers of units in one hex.

Target Density Modifier - ON - pretty simple reasoning - if you have more men in an area then more men will be hit.

No Retreat Overruns - OFF - This rule was added in because of the effects of code I asked John Tiller to add in the Main Program that would cause skirmishers alone in a hex to be overrun if a formed unit had to retreat and that was the only hex they could retreat to. They were against that and wanted a rule that would negate the new code. With the rule ON you have the ability to use skirmishers to block the retreat path of a formed unit. With it OFF you don't (except that skirmishes in Chateau hexes are never overrun). I suggested to John Tiller that we have an exception: any skirmisher NOT in clear terrain or a Building location could still be overrun but those in cover hexes could not but he passed on it. If you turn the rule OFF like I do just make sure you get your skirmishers out of the way before you attack formed units. Move them back into the hex (or another unit) after the melee is over. That is what I do to avoid having my own skirmishers overrun. (note: I have forgotten to move them and thus they got overrun - c'est la guerre!)

Weak Zone of Control - with this rule OFF units cannot move from on ZOC to another in a turn. I have this rule set to ON so that they CAN. There are some situations where having the rule OFF is beneficial such as when there are few units on one side and they are in a static defensive situation. So far I have yet to leave the rule OFF. Figure that ALL of the players you play will want this one ON.

Partial Retreats - OFF - there is some misunderstanding about this rule - and when you have the rule ON it doesn't always seem to come out like the rules say it will. I won't take time to explain. If you want check it out for yourself. Most of us have the rule set to OFF.

Line Movement Restriction - ON - I like this rule. The armies of this period rarely advanced in Line Formation. The percentage value of failure is set in the Parameter Data Table file (.pdt) in the main folder for every scenario. Usually its very low but. It is set per NATION. Thus if you have French, British and Spanish in a game you could set the rating for the British to be LOWER than the French and thus the British would march in line better than the French.

Flank Morale Modifier - ON - I lobbied for this rule - some don't like it because they think there should be MORE routing. They also turn OFF Rout Limiting. For me .. the scenarios would need more turns in order to allow for what happened historically. Turning this rule and/or the Rout Limiting rule OFF would mean that there would be more routs and less time to accomplish the mission. Figure that this is an opinionated rule. Here is my reasoning: units left alone tended to want to head to the rear more than if their flanks were "anchored" by friendly units. Some see it the other way around ... that the units should not get a bonus for friendlies on their flanks - it means they stick around longer and take more losses. While I agree in principle if a unit had had enough they often would voluntarily withdraw - not rout. Thus if a player wants to play historically then just pull the units back after they reach a certain loss threshold. Routing is not the answer.

Optional Melee Results - ON - Like the Optional Fire Results there is an averaging formula applied so that there is not such a wide variance in the melee outcomes. Turn it OFF and try it out to see what I mean. Most of us have this rule ON but there are those that like the wide variance. I would say about 90 percent of the players I play want this ON. The other 10% couldn't care less.

Multiple Cavalry Melees - ON - I lobbied for this rule because players were using infantry in Line formation to basically block charging cavalry from proceeding further in a melee phase. In the old days of the Battleground games and early JTS Napoleonic Battles series you were able to attack a unit with charging cavalry only once. Thus if you hit infantry in Line formation they would fall back facing the cavalry and their ZOC would stop the cavalry from passing by them. I found that ludicrous. The cavalry would sweep right by them (or run through them) and hit other targets if possible. This rule allows that infantry unit to get hit again (and again) by the cavalry or other cavalry units. Once a unit is attacked once infantry may not attack it. So if infantry attacks a unit then charging cavalry would be able to hit it again. The opposite is not true.

Multiple Infantry Melees - OFF - I had this rule added in for the rare cases where it could be useful. I have used it a few times but usually its OFF. All of the players I know have this one set to OFF because otherwise infantry could hit a location once with a stack of infantry and then bring up another stack of infantry and hit it again.

No Opportunity Fire Against Skirmishers - ON - Players would stack a skirmisher with formed units or artillery in hopes they would draw the fire of other AI artillery or infantry units. This rule says that skirmishers will never draw AI defensive fire. Most of us use this rule. No debate on this rule that I know of.

No Melee Eliminations - ON - we come to another rule that I lobbied for along with Ken Jones, Paco Palomo and many others. In a classic example of the old days of the "Blitzkrieg" I was shown a replay in a game of Campaign Eckmuhl where the French completely eliminated the majority of an Austrian brigade in one turn. That was because the units cannot retreat if the rear hexes were occupied by enemy units. The old days of the "ZOC Kill" are over if you turn this rule ON. Turn it off if you are playing a scenario where you think that units should surrender if surrounded. Most of us use the rule.

When discussing the rules we often abbreviate their names. Thus No Melee Eliminations becomes "NME" and Weak Zone of Control becomes "WZOC."

Hope this has been helpful. Please read the rule book on these rules. Its really good for you to know how they work. If you start up the game and then select the "Rules" option after you select a scenario then click on the "Help" button. This opens up "npb.pdf" (Napoleonic Battles Help PDF file) to the Optional Rules Dialog section and explains the rules to you. The help section may refer you to another section for more reading so you better understand a rule.

Bill....Column Pass Through Fire - ON......I believe it does not attack multiple units in square formation.Or even one unit in square and one unit in line or column.It does attack a unit in line and column.

Thanks, Clint. Usually I would open up the Scenario Editor, create a test scenario to try out those situations but just figured that it was so.

Its not an equal world so if one large 1000 man battalion is the target vs. three 330 man units the losses will be different. However, it does tend to cause players to disperse their units more OR keep them under cover when stacked.

Note: that 1000 man battalion can be broken up into two columns by doing the following:

Thanks, Clint. Usually I would open up the Scenario Editor, create a test scenario to try out those situations but just figured that it was so.

Its not an equal world so if one large 1000 man battalion is the target vs. three 330 man units the losses will be different. However, it does tend to cause players to disperse their units more OR keep them under cover when stacked.

Note: that 1000 man battalion can be broken up into two columns by doing the following:

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